Former GnR Bassist Says Mariners Could Have Had La Russa

From our friends over at Seattle Weekly, comes a first-hand account of how the Seattle Mariners could've had Tony La Russa as their manager.

Wait, what?

Here's a little background on how a rock star writes about a baseball manager:

Duff McKagan, a Seattle-based musician is the former bassist for Guns N' Roses. His current projects include Loaded and Velvet Revolver. His column appears every Thursday on Reverb.

I am not a sportswriter and definitely not an expert on all things sports. I am, however, a fan, and I have some general thoughts on what has been happening:

The Mariners’ ownership is based in another country and can’t really be bothered with anything other than the bottom line. As long as we fill those seats and keep someone on the team that Japan will buy the TV rights to, the ownership is happy. I ran into Tony La Russa at one of my gigs last spring and he was dismayed that the Mariners had passed him over a few months earlier.

“They passed you over?!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, it’s too bad, I would have loved the gig.”

Tony LaRussa had just won a World Series with the Cardinals! We need some good management, and I hope they do the right thing this off-season. If not, I suggest we all boycott. Shit, Sweet Lou left because management wasn’t allowing him to do his thing as he saw fit.